legal personality
A legal person is any being, natural or artificial, whom the law treats as capable of rights and duties. Human beings are natural persons. Legal (juristic or artificial) persons include companies, corporations, registered societies, the State and, in Indian law, Hindu idols and the Guru Granth Sahib. Theories explaining legal personality include the fiction theory (Savigny), concession theory, realist theory (Gierke) and bracket theory.
Personality is conferred by law and its extent depends on the purpose. The Supreme Court has held that a deity or a holy book may be a juristic person, but not every object of worship is one: in the Ayodhya case the land itself was not recognised as a juristic person. Courts have also discussed personality for rivers and animals.
Example
Because the idol has legal personality, property dedicated to it vests in the deity and the shebait sues on its behalf.
In Indian law
See also
corporate personality · lifting the corporate veil · shebait · right
Read more in the study notes
- Public corporations and public undertakings: status, classification, liability and control (Administrative Law)
- Notices, announcements, memos and press releases (Business Communications)
- The joint stock company and its classification (Business Environment)
- Suits by or against firms, minors and persons of unsound mind, indigent persons, and interpleader suits (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- The company: history, nature and corporate personality (Company Law)
- Kinds of companies (Company Law)